Comida Mexicana

While I was in Mexico for those two magical weeks I ate A LOT of food. More than my normal yogurt for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and whatever I can find for dinner diet.
There are a lot of different things that one can find to eat in the city of Oaxaca. I'm pretty sure I only scratched the surface of all the different things available.
I tried to take as many pictures as possible of the food that I ate but due to unforeseen circumstances it wasn't always possible (stupid phone not having a flash). So I'll do my best to describe things for you as well.

First we'll talk about tacos. There are many different types of tacos that we're used to in the U.S. Hard shell, soft shell, flour, corn, then there's crazy double layer weird taco bell concoctions that they pretend are tacos but anyone who has ever actually eaten Mexican food knows better.In Oaxaca at least they have soft shell tacos usually made with 2 white corn tortillas that are pretty small. Depending on the taqueria you go to you may have very different experiences with tacos based on what they put on them, inside of them, you're selection of meats and salsas. The tacos I ate the most while there were tacos con tasajo. Tasajo is a cut of beef, I have spent ten minutes looking on the Internet for a better description of tasajo than just "it's beef" but the answers are all different so I'll just tell you what I know from eating it. It's similar to a skirt steak in appearance, typically i have seen in tacos the tasajo is chopped so that it is in very small cubes (almost like ground beef but not ground). It seams juicy enough to have been marinated but in what I'm not sure. The tacos typically contain onion and cilantro along with the meat you choose, and your meat choices vary depending on where you are.
On the table at most taquerias is salt, salsa (red, green, or both), a guacamole that is very different from what we're used to in the states it's more of a liquid than cream, and lime.
I like salsa verde, lime, salt, and the liquid guacamole in my tacos.

Tacos con tasajo from a taqueria close to a friends house,
open faced

Tacos con tasajo prepared at a friends taqueria,
closed.

I also enjoyed tacos con arrachera which is one of my favorite steaks. It's also similar to a skirt steak but it's a million times better and I'm not sure why. Though I love the arrachera long time, it appears to be less prevalent in Oaxaca than tasajo and therefore I only was able to eat it once. In taco form.With this there was also onion and cilantro, only this time I didn't have access to salsa verde and instead had to us a red salsa and the same guacamole with lime and salt. Though in my life I always prefer salsa verde, the rojo is alright sometimes. I'm not sure what it is but I'm just not a big fan of red tomatoes. I prefer the tomatillos that are used in the salsa verde. I know I'm super weird but whatever. I also do not like that tomato is spelled without an e but you have to add one to make tomatoes.... that's weird too.

Tacos de Arrachera con agua natural sabor limon.

I also participated in the eating of tamales. Tamales are one of my favorite Mexican treats. While living in Chicago and working at my last job I became friends with a girl who shared my love of tamales. Our goal for every day was to eat tamales. We usually failed at this goal, but when we were winning... it was glorious! The one thing I love about tamales is the way they're prepared. It's like unwrapping a tasty gift of corn meal goodness with salsa verde and chicken. It's like heaven in a corn husk.
Tamales are one of the wondrous street fares that you will and can encounter in Mexico. I bought these off of a little woman in the mercado who had a big bag filled with about 3 different types of tamales. The woman was nice enough to let me sample the tamales verdes before I bought them.  You can find these tamale vendors randomly placed in markets and sometimes on the street as well. They're inexpensive food stuffs and totally worth finding. I will share with you my tamale photos now.

Tamales in their pretty pink bag. 3 verde con pollo (2 for Pepe, 1 for me), and one Oaxaqueno for me.

The first step to heaven, unwrapping the corn husk to reveal tasty tamale goodness.

Traditionally I have always eaten tamales straight out of the husk. While in Oaxaca Pepe and I bought tamales and right after he led me into the pan section of the market insisting we needed bread to go with our tamales. Once we returned to his work to eat our heavenly lunch he showed me how to eat a tamale with bread. It was like a whole new world. Like I had just woken up for the first time to see the sky, or like I had just crawled out from the rock I'd been living under for so long to discover fire. Tamales in bread!? How can I have lived for so long without knowing about this? I like tamales, and bread but never would I have thought to put the two together. Like chocolate and peanut butter.
Basically, you take a roll, rip it in half, scoop out the inside with your fingers (I basically scooped the insides out and just ate them right away) and then using your spoon, fork, or hands place part of your tamale in the hole you've just made until it's full and consume. It's amazing really.

Tamales in bread. Yum.

Another of the street fare you can encounter in Oaxaca at least if not all of Mexico is empenadas amarillas. They're amazingly tasty. They're not really like you're traditional empenada, at least not the ones I've ever seen. Usually I've only ever seen them as closed little pods of food. Usually containing some sort of meat or cheese with veggies and peppers. They're closed and typically baked or fried. These empenadas are different, cooked on a traditional tortilla and stuffed with meat and peppers and tasty goodness. I think maybe next time I'm photographing food like this I'll remember to open it so that anyone who wants can take a look inside.

Empenadas amarillas.

Anyway, when buying empenadas be careful of the tortilla. It is greasy and can become very hard very quickly. I'm not suggesting you stuff it in your mouth and make your self sick, but I am forewarning you that the outside edges of the tortilla (the ones that don't really have any stuffing in them) can become very tough to chew, so maybe eat that part first. The empenadas are served warm by the women who sell them on the street so you don't have to worry about that and usually they will have onions with cilantro and things that you can have in a bag on the side to add to your empenada.

This is an example of the women on the street selling empenadas. Other vendors appear very similar but with different foods.

My favorite of the local fare in Oaxaca is the tlayudas. They're amazingly tasty. A tlayuda is essentially the name for the tortilla used to make this quesedilla style folded dish. The tortilla is usually filled with some sort of pork based paste that I can't seem to remember the name of (I don't typically eat pork), mashed black beans, avocado, quesillo, tomato, some sort of meat and onions. The cooking process is something I've watched enough times that I can actually explain. The tortilla itself is a little harder than you're standard tortilla. It's still flexible but not as flexible as the traditional tortilla used to tacos or quesadillas. All the ingredients except for the meat and onion are added at first and the tlayuda is placed on a grill, to heat. Once the tlayuda is cooked it's removed and the precooked meat is added to the insides and then you eat it and smile. It is by far my favorite food in Oaxaca. Tasajo is once again the type I ate while there but it is available with other types of meat and you can also do just quesillo. But again it depends on the place you're eating them. However, once you eat a tlayuda, you'll be changed forever.

Tlayuda con tasajo y un cafe en el trabajo de mi suegra (tlayuda of tasajo at Pepe's mom's job)

Lets take a break for a second and talk about drinks. I didn't take many pictures of the things I was drinking but you can catch glimpses in the background of a lot of these food pictures. There are a lot of different drink options. The one thing that you're going to find is that water isn't free, or well you can have free water but it will probably kill you. All restaurants and bars (I assume) have water for human consumption, purified water that is safe to drink but I think it's reserved for employees only. Either way you will have to purchase a bottle of water. All places have bottled water for purchase. We've already gone over the whole water thing so I'll leave that alone.
There is coffee, chocolate, atole, natural water, beer, mezcal, tequila, pop, milkshakes, tea, and maybe other things like milk and stuff. Natural water is basically water with a natural flavoring. The flavor I like best is limon. Usually lime or lemon (depending) flavor, it's tasty, kind of like lemonade or limeade. There are other flavors of natural water too but the limon is the only kind I've had. Atole is a rice and oatmeal type concoction which is served hot and is amazing for cold days, or nights. Sometimes the atole has flavors, as you may remember the last time I was in Oaxaca I had atole fresa which is strawberry flavored, this time I  just had the normal flavor which is like a cinnamon or something. It's really good. If you've ever had horchata (which is like a cinnamon rice water) you'll understand the flavor of atole. It's very similar. If you haven't had horchata, get your ass to a taqueria and try some it's awesome.

Indio, my favorite mexican beer that I can't find in the states.

Oaxaca is famous for a lot of things. One of them is their chocolate. It is truly some of the best in the world. One of the drinks you will commonly find in markets and households alike is basically hot chocolate. The secret is well, a secret even to me. It is rich and creamy and sweet, yet satisfying and like a hug for your insides on a cold or even a hot day. I recommend trying everything you can.


A couple years ago a friend of mine was on a mission to cook me all the Mexican food he could. It was excellent, like having my own personal chef. One of the things that he made me was pozole. A soup like dish popular in Mexico, pozole is made with a lot of different ingredients but I think the one constant is some sort of meat and hominy. When I was living in Chicago I would occasionally find Mexican restaurants with pozole but usually it had pork in it. I'm guessing that's the most common meat used. I love it with chicken. The pozole in the photo was made by Pepe's mom while I was there. It was different from the pozole I had in Chicago made by my friend. She added radish, cabbage, onion, and some spices on the top of the dish. I ate mine with tostadas.

Pozole de pollo.

Not every food product in Mexico is different than what you're used to, or filled with uncommon veggies and peppers that you're not sure your mouth can handle. There is simpler food also. Things like tortas which are basically a Mexican sandwich. Filled with mayonnaise, beans, meat, avocado, tomato, and other toppings depending on what kind you want and where you buy it from. they're simple and quick.

Torta De Pollo.

Some cafes and restaurants sell food that is more like what we're used to in non Mexican countries. Things like baguettes, or just traditional sandwiches. They have the same, or similar, lunch meats as we do in the states. Ham, turkey, salami, other things. The coffee shop that I spent a lot of time in while I was there had a selection of sandwiches on baguettes, croissants, and just plain old wheat bread.

Baguette de pollo

Baguette de salami.

Tourist towns in Mexico are not unlike your big cities or tourist area's in the U.S. They attempt to cater to all different pallets and ideals. Just like in the food court, or on the strip you can find food from every corner of the world if you know where to look. In the Midwestern town where I currently live there are a lot of places that serve traditional American food. The same can be said for Mexico, there are a lot of taquerias and places with traditional Mexican food, but there are also places that serve and specialize in pizza, Chinese food, American food, Italian and others. They may have their own twist on how they do things, for example one thing I found fascinating and slightly disturbing on my first visit is that there are Domino's pizzerias everywhere. The scary part of pizza in Mexico is that they put ketchup on their pizza! To me that's just odd. Hamburgers seem to be a very popular thing in Mexico as well.

Hamburger and fries with a Fanta orange to wash it down.

Street vendors also sell food that is similar to your American favorites. For example in the evening time near the centro and zocalo it is very common to find people who are selling hot dogs, potato chips, hot cakes, and elote. All of which are snack like foods but cater more to an American pallet.

Mr. Cara de papa (Mr. potato face_

The hot dogs are wrapped in bacon and can come with all sorts of toppings, the potato chips can have hot sauce added to them, and elote is corn on the cob with mayo, lime, salt, and chili powder. If you're feeling adventurous you can load up on all of the traditional toppings they offer, if you're feeling a little too American for your Mexican surroundings you can always opt out and get your dog plain, your chips salty, and your corn without the mayo.

elote.

The one thing you need to be careful about with some of these street foods is to watch the vendor, know how long your food has been cooking, or be prepared to eat something that's maybe been there for several hours. I recommend buying hot dogs and elote early on, we all know potato chips take a lot longer to go bad. I had the unfortunate problem of buying elote that had either been cooked too long or not long enough. The kernels were hard and it was very difficult to eat. The flavor was wonderful with all the toppings but it wasn't what I wanted. I hope you have better luck.


Lets talk about breakfast. Traditionally I've grown up believing breakfast consists of cereal, eggs, waffles, or pancakes, something to that effect. Breakfast food is one of my favorite types of foods. In Mexico traditional breakfast is very different. There are still places you can find scrambled eggs with bacon and toast, but typically your Mexican breakfast will be very different. At least in my experience. There were days when my breakfast consisted of a baguette, or a sandwich on wheat with queso and mayonnaise. Usually it was some sort of sweet bread, or pan dulce, and coffee. Sometimes quesadillas with quesillo were part of it as well.

coffee, concha (pan dulce), and quesadillas.

Pan, or bread is a huge thing as far as Mexican food goes. They have panadarias or bread shops all over the place. There are even people on the street corners with big baskets of different types of breads. My favorites are conches (pictured above), orejas (Spanish word for ears, more like a cookie), and then there are like 3 others that I can't remember the name of but they're tasty. Panadarias usually have a variety of breads, in the U.S. I've seen muffins, bagels sometimes, croissants, baguettes or small loaves of french bread. The best part, bread is very, very cheap. In the U.S. I would buy 3 conches, and like 4 cookies and it would cost around 2 dollars. Amazing. In Mexico it's rather cheap as well (I don't know exact amounts but it's probably like 5 or 10 pesos a loaf or a roll or whatever).

Pan section of the Mercado.

In most super markets you can find a lot of different foods that our American stomachs are used to. They have eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, oatmeal the whole nine yards available for purchase. Most of the time you can find brands you're used to. One of my favorite things to eat in Mexico for breakfast is Zugaritas. They're basically Mexican Frosted Flakes and the box depicts our favorite tiger personality only with a Mexican flare, down there they call him Tigre Toño. I am not a big cereal eater when here in the states. I don't know why but in my adult years I've grown out of cereal. Occasionally I'll find myself craving some lucky charms or cheerios or something but usually I'm not a cereal person. In Mexico, I love Zugaritas. They're amazingly better there than here and I'm still trying to figure out why. I don't know if it's the cereal itself that's different or if it's the milk that they have ( I like the brand LaLa) or what but Mexican Frosted Flakes are better than American frosted flakes.

Zugaritas with strawberries.

If you're like me, not willing to give up your eggs but still want to walk on the wild side a touch I recommend chilaquiles. This dish is basically tortillas that have been left out to dry, or are already kind of stale and then are cooked in salsa. I like mine with egg, preferably scrambled but I'll take a fried egg as well. Just like my tamales I like the verde more than the rojo but lets be honest, I'm not that picky. The garnish is different from place to place just like any other food stuff. The chilaquiles I had in Oaxaca had cheese (quesillo I believe), onion, and cilantro. In Chicago it was usually just cheese. I loooooooove chilaquiles.

Chilaquiles rojo.

In my constant quest to not openly be a fat kid, I've tended to avoid desert in my life. While in Mexico I don't typically partake in desert either. However, let's face it, it's hot in Mexico. I was there for two weeks in January and it was 85 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny pretty much every day. So after a long day in the sun, walking around the market, or just admiring the scenery one tends to get a little hot. there are many cool dishes to alleviate that heat. You can find men walking through the city pushing little carts that have bells on them and they contain a wonderful treat called paleta. Basically it's a Popsicle. My favorite flavors are arroz con leche (rice with milk) and fresa (strawberries are my favorite as you're learning). They have a crazy amount of flavors from caramel to lime to rum punch (yeah not a fan of that one). If you've lived (or live) in a city with a large Hispanic population you're probably familiar with paletas. In Chicago you would see the men with paleta carts all over the city in the summer. They are cheap and amazingly tasty. The best part? They're very satisfying on a hot day. There are a couple different companies in Oaxaca (and maybe all of Mexico) that sell paletas and other ice cream type treats in actual store fronts. Also inexpensive and tasty. Sadly, usually there is no menu to tell you what your options are so I suggest becoming familiar with the flavors of the region and how to say them in Spanish so you're not stumped when you order.

Paleta Arroz con leche.

Back to traditional food. A couple of times while out and eating I was with a larger group of my friends in a restaurant. I guess it's a thing they do every Saturday and Sunday is go out to "lunch". This takes place any time between 2pm and 5pm so it's "lunch". The first Sunday supper that I experienced we went to a restaurant whose name escapes me that another of our friends works in as a waiter. A few of my friends decided we should have a botana for our meal and share it. I learned upon returning to the states that a botana is common in other restaurants but is something very different. In Oaxaca a botana contains a couple different types of meat (tasajo, pork something, chorizo, and maybe something else), queso, quesillo, and other stuff. I know I'm so very descriptive about things and stuff. I had a Botana Oaxaquena two times. The first time there were memelitas, tasajo, queso, quesillo, pork stuff, and chorizo. The second had tasajo (or maybe arrachera, I'm not positive), queso, quesillo, tacos frescos with mole negro, chapulines, chorizo, quesadillas de quesillo, and maybe something else but I don't remember.
Either way these dishes are wonderful to share. There is enough food and enough of a selection for several people to be satisfied.

Botana Oaxaquena number one.

Now you're probably about at a point where you're wondering what the hell is a memelita or a taco fresco. If you're a veteran to this blog and read posts about my last visit to Oaxaca you're probably familiar with the memelita. If you're a virgin to this blog you're about to learn.
We'll start with tacos frescos. These are cold tacos. Much like the hot ones they come in a variety of flavors. The ones I had were chicken filled, topped with black beans, lettuce, and queso. To explain them best I would say they're like "taquitos" only served at room temperature. I love them.

Tacos frescos

Memelitas are also something I love. They're simple and yet a staple to the Oaxacan fare. To make memelitas you start with corn tortillas that are the same used to make the tacos we talked about earlier, then you apply that pork stuff that is put on the tlayudas (I promise one day I'll figure out what it's called), top it with mashed black beans and queso or quesillo. Put it on a grill to cook and bam you're done. You can find them at almost any food stand in the markets. I top them with some salsa and guac and then eat them like it's the last supper. I will definitely say that for those of you who are less on the adventurous side with your food memelitas will sit nicely.

Memelitas with quesillo and queso.

Last but not least (and finally because I've basically been talking about food forever) I ate a bug. I mentioned in a blog entry entitled "I swallowed a bug..." I mentioned eating chapulines. At the time I did not upload pictures of this wonderful and scary new thing. So for my final bit of info. Here's some bugs.

Chapulines

Me eating a bug.

This one looked like he was dancing.

We didn't want him to dance alone.

I hope that once I make the move for real I'll be able to give more information about places to eat, what to order, and all of that fun tourist info stuff you actually want. Sadly, this time around this was slightly impromptu and therefor the information is kind of lacking. For that I apologize, but isn't half the fun of traveling to find your own favorite spots?